Dodging drones and fishing bans hit Romanian village on Ukraine border

CGTN Europe

The residents of Plauru, #Romania - a village on the border with #Ukraine, are affected by the war in many ways. From #drones falling from the sky to not being able to fish as usual, which is one of the main ways they provide food for their families. The population of the village has dropped drastically as a result.   #Plauru #village #politics

Transcript

00:00 Villagers prepare meat for the long cold winter months.

00:04 That's what the Tanase family is doing on this foggy December morning.

00:09 They make their income from fishing, but that's more difficult these days.

00:14 They say it is too dangerous to fish at night because their outboard motors sound like Russian drones

00:21 and Ukrainians might shoot at them.

00:27 During the day you can still fish, but you won't catch anything because there are lots of ships,

00:31 especially Panamanian ones. There are many from all around the world.

00:36 Look at these nets, they ruin them.

00:43 Wherever you place the nets, ships are sailing over and destroying them.

00:47 The village mayor says the government isn't doing enough to help.

00:54 There have to be some kind of economic measures to protect our fishing population.

01:01 No measures were taken.

01:03 They just like to brag about what they've done.

01:07 Their bellies are probably full and we starve to death.

01:10 I don't think that's fair.

01:12 On the top of the economic hardship there is a constant fear of falling drones,

01:18 many of which have gone unreported.

01:22 It was terrible. They fell on our land, the house, the bed, and everything shook.

01:28 It felt like you were on the front line.

01:30 Even two days ago more of them fell here, but it wasn't mentioned in the press.

01:35 On December 7th it was 1.50 in the morning.

01:39 Imagine being woken from your sleep to the sound of artillery fire and drones buzzing.

01:44 Those stray attacks are one of the reasons why the village population has fallen.

01:49 To around 40 people.

01:52 For those remaining, the sound of an approaching drone sends them running for cover.

01:58 This is one of the shelters that the Romanian military has built

02:03 very soon after the first drones started falling on the neighboring Ismail.

02:09 It is a concrete shelter which should provide some basic cover for local citizens.

02:18 While it may provide a temporary shelter for the scared residents, it won't get rid of their fear.

02:24 Aljoša Milenković, CGTN, Plouru.

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